The Monday Bulletin (27th January): Uruguay a surprise package in Perth and nominations sought for Celebration of Women in Sport Awards
Yesterday at 06:00 AM
by COLIN RENTON
Nominations sought for women's awards
The Celebration of Women in Sport Awards will take place on Friday 23rd May as part of the Melrose Sevens schedule. The event recognises the work of sportswomen and teams in the Scottish Borders. Around 300 people attended the event last year, with more than 40 award nominees across various sports and disciplines. Organiser Siobhan Petrie is inviting nominations in five categories: Coach of the Year; Team of the Year; Inspirational Performance of the Year; Volunteer of the Year; and Under 18s Rising Star of the Year. Names can be submitted until 28 February via the link at: CLICK HERE.
Refs recognised with international caps
Scottish Rugby has announced plans to recognise referees who have taken charge of international matches involving Tier 1 Unions by awarding caps. They are being presented retrospectively, with the first recipient being Alan Hosie. He refereed his first international in 1973 and was involved at the highest level for the next 11 years. Hosie also served as Scotland manager and was on the committees of Glasgow & District, the SRU, the Five and Six Nations, the International Rugby Board and the British & Irish Lions. He was President of the Scottish Rugby Union in 2002-03.
URC: gritty Glasgow hold off late Connacht fightback
Celtic Challenge: Late heartbreak for Edinburgh against Gwalia Lightning
Arnold Clark Men's Premiership: Hawick bounce back with big win over Musselburgh
European competition draws big crowds
More than one million spectators attended matches in the pool stages of the Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions. The 84 games produced a total of 613 tries, with 183 of that tally coming in the fourth round. The knockout phase starts on the first weekend in April, featuring Glasgow Warriors at home to Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup and Edinburgh hosting Lions in the Challenge Cup. The tournaments conclude in Cardiff on the weekend of 23rd May.
New coach for Wales women ahead of Scotland clash
Wales will have a new coach in place for the opening match of the women's Six Nations against Scotland on 22nd March. Sean Lynn, who was formerly in charge at Premiership Women's champions Gloucester-Hartpury, has signed a three-year contract to take over from Ioan Cunningham, who left his post last November.
McKay leaves rugby
Dominic McKay has left his job as European Rugby chairman to become chief executive of the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow. Before taking up the European Rugby job, based in Switzerland, McKay spent 13 years at Scottish Rugby, latterly as chief operating officer, and was briefly chief executive at Celtic FC. His time at Scottish Rugby coincided with an expansion of live music events and other sports at the national stadium.
Porty launch rugby charity
Portobello Youth Rugby Academy [PYRA] staged a launch event at Cavalry Park on Saturday. The initiative has been set up to provide secondary school pupils in East Edinburgh with training and advice in areas such as nutrition and conditioning. Scotland and Edinburgh centre, Mark Bennett, who was a sevens silver medallist at the Rio Olympics, delivered a training session to the youngsters on the opening weekend and will run weekly strength and conditioning sessions over a six-week block starting this Thursday.
Netflix drop Full Contact
Netflix has confirmed that it has no current plans to film a third ‘Full Contact’ series of the upcoming 2025 Six Nations campaign. The cancellation will have come as a major blow to the tournament organisers and rugby administrators in general who hoped that the ‘behind the scenes’ documentary would capture the imagination beyond the sport’s existing supporter base just as Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ project galvanised Formula One. Unfortunately, the project was beset by challenges which included certain nations being resistant to providing the sort of access required to really convince the viewer that they are being given a genuine peak behind the curtain, and viewer figures have evidently not hit the required level.
Uruguayans cause double upset at Perth sevens
Uruguay Men were the unlikely stars of the World Sevens event in Perth, Australia, over the weekend. They battled back from a 17-0 deficit to post a 24-17 win over Fiji then went on to beat New Zealand 17-12. Despite losing to Kenya in their third pool match, the Uruguayans progressed to the knockout phase, where they exited at the hands of eventual bronze medallists, Spain. Argentina beat Australia in the final of the men's tournament, while the hosts edged out New Zealand 28-26 to lift the women's title. Elsewhere in the tournament, Fiji beat the All Blacks on the second day in a match that featured this offload:
"Are you kidding me" 🤯
Is that the greatest offload you've ever seen? 😱#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSPER | @fijirugbypic.twitter.com/j4g5FgurYQ
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 25, 2025
The post The Monday Bulletin (27th January): Uruguay a surprise package in Perth and nominations sought for Celebration of Women in Sport Awards appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.
